The Mental Illness Called Money

Initially, humans emerged as a natural phenomenon of Mother Earth. There was no heaven or hell, just Mother Earth, all the other species, and us. Our awareness of our existence was minimal. Humans were ignorant of just about everything. Would you agree to these statements?

Everything we did came from the instinctual need to survive and procreate. The natural behaviour of the universe is growth and expansion, and all species of Mother Earth follow the same behaviour. There is an abundance of all we need to grow and continue to expand our existence on this planet. Mother Earth has always provided an abundance of everything and will continue to do so for eternity. But we failed to recognize that fact. We experienced times of scarcity, so we started hoarding what we needed to survive lean times. However, scarcity is no longer something to be feared; yet, we still fear scarcity, not about a scarcity of food, shelter, or warmth, but rather a fear of the lack of money we suffer. We don’t need money. We need to make use of it. Somehow, Naturists seem to know this.

We became curious about the nature of our surroundings and our existence, and started asking questions. There was no science then, or at the very least, our science was infantile and ignorant about the nature of the universe. We attempted to find explanations for the natural occurrences in our world. Using our imaginations, we attributed them to unseen deities as the source of all the natural phenomena of this magnificent world, which attests to our ignorance and lack of scientific methodology. Those who took credit away from Nature for the natural occurrences they observed and foisted it upon the deities are the same ones who were self-proclaimed agents of these deities and made themselves more powerful than anyone else because of their personal understanding of the acts of the gods, which they deduced for themselves. They became very powerful due to the gullibility of those who were not concerned with acquiring knowledge, power, and control. There was nothing special about these control-lusting individuals except that they had a keen imagination and a thirst for understanding, and they were clever at manipulating people. There’s still nothing special about them today. They are, like everyone else, human beings who do many things that are only beneficial for themselves and their inner circle. They became adept at convincing leaders of their powers of observation and their ability to commune with the deities to obtain the answers they concocted. Most people were content to know that these occurrences happen, and no explanation is needed. It just happens. They didn’t need to know why or who was responsible. We still don’t need to know, but we’ve been programmed by archaic societal, sometimes violently enforced ideology to accept the gods as the instigators of all happenings. Religious institutions exist for one reason, and that is maintaining control over the masses and accruing the wealth bestowed upon them by the devout tithers. They always try to get something for nothing.

Somewhere along the path of evolution, we were captivated by a common element found throughout the universe known as gold. A close second was silver, which also became highly coveted because of its rarity. Then, of course, gemstones also caused great excitement in us, and all these materials were placed higher on the scale of importance, with human life never considered part of that scale. We took our existence for granted. Our ignorance of our existence allowed us to prioritize the acquisition of wealth and material possessions over the value of human life. But there is nothing more precious than life. Life of any kind and any species. We haven’t learned that consciousness is the result of life, and the awareness of our consciousness seems to be as rare as gold. Our awareness of ourselves and the universe around us is inextricably linked to life. Humans should be custodians of this planet, yet the human thought-created greed and power-lust have polluted and destroyed more of Mother Earth and human life, and only now, at this time in our evolution, are we seeing the mistake. I was programmed to think that money is scarce and hard to acquire, and that we have to fight for what we want, with unlimited time to accrue as much wealth as we can. The opposite is true. Money is abundant, and we have a limited time to do amazing things. To achieve wealth, we need only give away our talents and abilities for the benefit of everyone else. Doing amazing things is what is fulfilling. But living a fulfilling life seems to be less important than living in opulence.

Dishonesty is another illness born from ignorance and the invention of money. Lies and deception are used to manipulate people into parting with their hard-earned money, and they are employed in a variety of creative and prolific ways to achieve this. There was a time when a contract was based on a promise and a handshake. People had integrity, and a promise was a solemn vow to complete something. Now, the promise is hollow and honour is shallow, and the handshake is just a gesture. Money always wins over honour. The world has become a place where getting something for nothing is the game. Getting rich on lies and unfulfilled promises is the win. Driving sharp bargains and inequity is the rule. The universal law is that when you provide a product or service, you always provide more in use value than you receive in money value. That’s undeniably true.

Domination is another human instinct that helped us propagate as a species. The stronger, healthier members of a community dominated the weaker subordinates, and our population continued to grow. Possessions of material things became so important that we became violent and domineering in our pursuit of increasing our status in the human hierarchy by displaying our opulence. For some reason, elation was felt, and still is felt, when we physically punish or end someone's life for resisting conformance. How is it that we haven’t evolved out of these ancient instinctual behaviours? Is it because we don’t learn anything from our past? Oh, wait, it’s because 95% of the human population does not think. We react. Confronted with circumstances that would diminish our opulence, non-thinking people will turn to violence to protect it.

When combined, money and the desire to dominate others allowed those with large amounts of material wealth to purchase evil-minded individuals, who force peace-loving and co-creative people to surrender their gold, silver, and other material wealth and conform to the ‘normalcy’ dictated by the rich person or face violent repercussions. The evil-minded were, and are, the stupid people who do not fit in with the general population. When evil-minded people grow tired of toiling for their lords and masters, they begin committing acts of evil without authorization, and criminality ensues.

Money is the thoughtless bastard child of ignorance and a significant source of stress-related illnesses in the human species. Dominance is a vulgar display of prehistoric, primal, non-thinking behaviour. These behaviours are displayed by people who have never given any thought to understanding who they are. They’ve never given themselves purpose. They seem to be gold diggers and power hungry mindless buffoons wearing expensive clothes and pounding their chests and stomping their feet. It’s funny how I never see that in the Naturist world. What is it about clothes that makes human-doings lose their minds?

Most of us, and I still observe this today, want freedom. That’s all. Peaceful and harmonious existence among all human beings. Using what we need and avoiding overuse of anything.  Being able to behave the way we want, provided we’re not harming anyone. Travelling where we want without borders or identification. Without fear. That’s why Naturism is such a wonderful culture. We respect each other. The wealthier people are down-to-earth human beings. There is no power lust or lust for material things. Our leaders rise through merit. They behave honourably and work to create peace and harmony, never going back on their word. They make mistakes, but they correct them.

Naturism has taught me that co-creation functions much better than dominance and the use of force. When someone forces an idea, ideology, religion, or power on anyone, they meet with great resistance. In Naturism, we offer suggestions, share our knowledge, and seek peaceful, co-creative ways to create community and prosperity for all. Why is it that the textiled world cannot see sense in doing the same? Oh, wait. There’s no money to be made through peaceful endeavours. How do we teach this to the greedy, power-hungry, small-minded, and narrow-focused members of the textiled world? Is a peaceful naked revolution required?